Method of making bearings



Patented Nov. 25, 1941 y METHOD or MAxmc. BEARINGS Edward V. Rippinglle, Detroit, Mich., as'slgnor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a a corporation of Delaware Application october 2s, 1939, serial No. A301,680

2 claims. (c1. zei-149.5)

Thisv'invention relates to bearing bushings having either internal or external bearing surfaces of anti-friction material, or both. More speci'- cally it. relates to floating bearing bushings of steel, with internal and external anti-friction linings which may be embossed and filled with a still softer bearing material of lead or other suitable bearing alloy to provide a bearing which is strong, with high load carrying' capacity, and at the same time of minimumthickness and space requirement. l

The object of the invention isa bearing bushing of the foregoing type which will be simple and cheap to make. A

The above and other objects of the invention will be apparent as the description proceeds.

According to the invention, thev bushing may consists of two strips of steel, with anti-friction material bonded to one side thereof and suitably embossed to hold a softer bearing material such as lead, which are spirally wound in opposite directio'ns, tightly upon each other, and welded se- Vcurely together to form a tube having inner and outer layers of strip material overlaying each other, with the steel side o-f said strips .back to back and the anti-friction surfaces to the linside and outside of the tube, the embossing being subsequently lled with the softer anti-friction material such as lead or the like. 'f

The drawing shows the preferred form of the invention and the method of making thereof. In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view showing the manner in which the strip material is spirally wound upon a mandrel.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a part Fig. 1.

Fig. 3.is a view, similar to Fig. 2, of a modiiied construction.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectionall view similar to Fig. 2 with the depressions in the embossed surfaces fllled with babbitt.

Fig. 5 is a perspective View of a completed bushing.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged view of a part of Fig. 5.

The sheet material from which the bearing bushing is cbnstructedfis commercially obtainable, and may be a bi-metallic strip of copper and steel, or so called copper clad steel, consisting of a sheet of copper bonded to a sheet of steel. The

l copper surface of the sheet is embossed in any suitable way, to provide depressions which are subsequently lled with babbitt of a softer metal such as lead or the like. k. y

A strip 2, of the sheet material, is cut to a suitdrel I of any convenient length, with the embossed copper surface 3 of the strip against -the mandrel and with the e'dges of the convolutions of the strip abutting one another so that there 'is no space left between them. The strip is held securely cn the mandrel in-any suitable Way, while a similar strip 4 is spirally wound in an opposite direction over the strip 2 with the embossed copper surface 5 of the strip 4 to the outidel the steel sides of said strips being back to ac While still tightly wrapped on the mandrel the strips are secured together as by shot resistance welding, in well known manner, electrode contact for welding being made at selected points on the exterior copper surface o'f the -outer strip.

' The greater electrical resistanceof the steel than the copper of the strips insures that with a high welding current density, the steel of onestrip will be welded to the steel of the other, without melt-4 ing of their copper surfaces.

Alternatively, and as shown in Fig. 3, a narrow strip of copper may be removed from the edges of the strips before winding so that the abutments of the convolutions will be bare o f copper as Electrode. contact 4for weldshown at 6 and 1. ing can then be made directly on the steel of the strips.

After welding, the tube formed of the spirally wound strips is removed from the mandrel and a high lead babbitt 9 is cast into the embossedV I depressions l0 as shownin Fig. 4.

4Sections of any requiredr length may be cut oft" the tube formed of the'spirally wound strip, and may be machined to size to produce oating' bush-v ings of the kind shown in Fig. 5.

I claim: l

1. The method of making floating bearing bushings from strip,material of steel having copper bonded to one side thereof, which consists in suitably embossing the copper side of -the strip material, spirally winding a strip of said embossed material tightly upon a mandrel, .withthe copper side of said strip adjacent thereto, and with its edges in abutting relationship, spirally winding another strip of said embossed'material tightly and in an opposite direction over the'rst 2. The method of making floating bearing bushings from bi-metallicstrip material of steel able width, and spirally wound, tightly on a manon one side and a suitable anti-friction 4metal on said strips together by electric resistance welding 1 with electrode contact directly on the steel of :the

strips at the edges from which the anti-friction metal has been removed, removing `the tubular assembly so formed from the mandrel, lling the embossed depressions with a softer anti-friction material, cutting to length and machining to size.

EDWARD V. RIPPINGILUE. 

